NARSUM

C

Chiefs Fan

PEB Forum Regular Member
Registered Member
Hello everyone,

I'm in the AF Reserves with over 22 years in and I'm also an Air Reserve Technician (ART) with 20 years of federal service. I'm 100% P&T since 2019 and I'm 58 years old. I have a completed ILOD approved for several MH issues and my IRILO and NARSUM has already been returned by AFRC as disqualifying from the Reserves and MEB recommended. I was assigned a PEBLO last week who requested my DD 214's and the Commanders Impact Statement, which he is currently working on. On Monday 21st, the active duty medical squadron called me to set up the exam for my MH NARSUM.

Now my question is:
Does all of the sound like it is going as it should?
Is the PEBLO a neutral party or does he have my best interest in mind?
Is the active duty MH exam just like a C&P exam?
What happens when my package gets sent off to big Blue?

Thank you all for the helpful information. Have a wonderful day.

Go Chiefs
 
Chiefs Fan said:
Hello everyone,

I'm in the AF Reserves with over 22 years in and I'm also an Air Reserve Technician (ART) with 20 years of federal service. I'm 100% P&T since 2019 and I'm 58 years old. I have a completed ILOD approved for several MH issues and my IRILO and NARSUM has already been returned by AFRC as disqualifying from the Reserves and MEB recommended. I was assigned a PEBLO last week who requested my DD 214's and the Commanders Impact Statement, which he is currently working on. On Monday 21st, the active duty medical squadron called me to set up the exam for my MH NARSUM.

Now my question is:
Does all of the sound like it is going as it should?
Is the PEBLO a neutral party or does he have my best interest in mind?
Is the active duty MH exam just like a C&P exam?
What happens when my package gets sent off to big Blue?

Thank you all for the helpful information. Have a wonderful day.

Go Chiefs
Click to expand...
I can't answer these questions but did want to state that you are in good place. Since you are only a couple years away from getting max compensation due to an earned Reserve Retirement and getting concurrent receipt of VA Disability pay. I assume the goal is to be found unfit with 30% DOD so that you can retire a couple years earlier. Just know that if that happens any pension earned will be offset until you reach eligible age for your reserve pension. So if that happens shortly after medically retiring you are going to want to apply for your reserve retirement 6 months before eligible so that your entitlement to both occurs. Regardless of the result of compensation for your chapter 61 pension the max compensation is your earned reserve pension amount + VA disability amount.

Have you looked into how that affects your FERS? If found unfit and unable to continue on your FERS position you can apply for FERS disability. Even if you can't you are super close to getting it too. If 20 years in you get it at age 60.

Since you have so many things going for you there isn't much for you to lose regardless of the results.
 
Provis said:
I can't answer these questions but did want to state that you are in good place. Since you are only a couple years away from getting max compensation due to an earned Reserve Retirement and getting concurrent receipt of VA Disability pay. I assume the goal is to be found unfit with 30% DOD so that you can retire a couple years earlier. Just know that if that happens any pension earned will be offset until you reach eligible age for your reserve pension. So if that happens shortly after medically retiring you are going to want to apply for your reserve retirement 6 months before eligible so that your entitlement to both occurs. Regardless of the result of compensation for your chapter 61 pension the max compensation is your earned reserve pension amount + VA disability amount.

Have you looked into how that affects your FERS? If found unfit and unable to continue on your FERS position you can apply for FERS disability. Even if you can't you are super close to getting it too. If 20 years in you get it at age 60.

Since you have so many things going for you there isn't much for you to lose regardless of the results.
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Thank you for the reply. I have enough deployment time that I have reduced my eligible retirement time down to age 57, so I can start collecting immediately.
 
Chiefs Fan said:
Thank you for the reply. I have enough deployment time that I have reduced my eligible retirement time down to age 57, so I can start collecting immediately.
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So why not just retire? Is it to get FERS disability early? Going through MEB sucks so just curious why. Typically if you can retire they can find you fit due to that fact alone.
 
Provis said:
So why not just retire? Is it to get FERS disability early? Going through MEB sucks so just curious why. Typically if you can retire they can find you fit due to that fact alone.
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Do you know the difference between AD E-8 and Reserve E-8 retirement with 22 years, about $1500 a month. My injuries happened in Iraq and Afghanistan, so what I'm being told is the medical retirement would be an active duty retirement since my ILOD occurred while in country. Unless you know something my Military Family Readiness office has misinformed me on? I really have not gotten a lot of help from anyone in my unit on any of this. My medical office doesn't have a clue, my legal office says I can't even push the button to retire if I'm going through an MEB and my leadership has zero answers.

As for the FERS remark? No clue again what you are talking about. I just assumed that 30 days after losing my military status I would be retired from my Federal job.

Thank you

Go Chiefs
 
Chiefs Fan said:
Do you know the difference between AD E-8 and Reserve E-8 retirement with 22 years, about $1500 a month. My injuries happened in Iraq and Afghanistan, so what I'm being told is the medical retirement would be an active duty retirement since my ILOD occurred while in country. Unless you know something my Military Family Readiness office has misinformed me on? I really have not gotten a lot of help from anyone in my unit on any of this. My medical office doesn't have a clue, my legal office says I can't even push the button to retire if I'm going through an MEB and my leadership has zero answers.

As for the FERS remark? No clue again what you are talking about. I just assumed that 30 days after losing my military status I would be retired from my Federal job.

Thank you

Go Chiefs
Click to expand...
So typically you don't net any more money because you can't get more than the combination of your earned pension and VA compensation. If there was a gap between the time you can retire and medically retiring then any money from a chapter 61 pension would be offset by any VA compensation you receive.

The answer is no to the question of whether you gain more income from a medical retirement verse a Reserve retirement. If you are eligible for for an immediate retirement via Reserves you are maxed out on compensation. You don't get the higher amount. That is false. The reason is that your income is capped. You don't get the higher $ amount from chapter 61 pension and all of your VA compensation. Regardless of what your chapter 61 retirement amount is the most you can get is the maximum allowed which is the value of your Reserve pension and VA compensation.

Pretty much assume everyone telling you things have no clue (Includes Military Family Readiness, PBLEO, Retirement Services and More!) how each part of this affects the other part. I found out a couple years ago when talking to Retirement Services, PEBLOs etc that they are all clueless. The reason is that they know only there small narrow part of it. The issue is that each part affects the whole when it comes to compensation.

As for FERS, if you can immediately retire with no reductions in retirement income then you are probably good and fit or unfit would have no bearing on it. If that's not the case and you are medically retired and are no longer allowed to do your FERS job due to not being a Reservist you would want to apply for disability with FERS.

Lastly, you are correct that you can't get out of a MEB once you are in it. However, its common for those who are put in it to be found fit. Sometimes if you know this stuff you can keep things to yourself and just apply for retirement. It saves you from being stuck in a process where you don't control the timeline.
 
Chiefs Fan said:
Do you know the difference between AD E-8 and Reserve E-8 retirement with 22 years, about $1500 a month. My injuries happened in Iraq and Afghanistan, so what I'm being told is the medical retirement would be an active duty retirement since my ILOD occurred while in country. Unless you know something my Military Family Readiness office has misinformed me on? I really have not gotten a lot of help from anyone in my unit on any of this. My medical office doesn't have a clue, my legal office says I can't even push the button to retire if I'm going through an MEB and my leadership has zero answers.

As for the FERS remark? No clue again what you are talking about. I just assumed that 30 days after losing my military status I would be retired from my Federal job.

Thank you

Go Chiefs
Click to expand...
I did think of 1 or 2 things that are a slight benefit. If medically retired you get Tricare right away for free. If you choose Tricare select the $300 annual fee is waived. Typically if you qualify for an earlier Reserve retirement you get the pay right away but still have to wait until age 60 for the free Tricare.
 
Provis said:
So typically you don't net any more money because you can't get more than the combination of your earned pension and VA compensation. If there was a gap between the time you can retire and medically retiring then any money from a chapter 61 pension would be offset by any VA compensation you receive.

The answer is no to the question of whether you gain more income from a medical retirement verse a Reserve retirement. If you are eligible for for an immediate retirement via Reserves you are maxed out on compensation. You don't get the higher amount. That is false. The reason is that your income is capped. You don't get the higher $ amount from chapter 61 pension and all of your VA compensation. Regardless of what your chapter 61 retirement amount is the most you can get is the maximum allowed which is the value of your Reserve pension and VA compensation.

Pretty much assume everyone telling you things have no clue (Includes Military Family Readiness, PBLEO, Retirement Services and More!) how each part of this affects the other part. I found out a couple years ago when talking to Retirement Services, PEBLOs etc that they are all clueless. The reason is that they know only there small narrow part of it. The issue is that each part affects the whole when it comes to compensation.

As for FERS, if you can immediately retire with no reductions in retirement income then you are probably good and fit or unfit would have no bearing on it. If that's not the case and you are medically retired and are no longer allowed to do your FERS job due to not being a Reservist you would want to apply for disability with FERS.

Lastly, you are correct that you can't get out of a MEB once you are in it. However, its common for those who are put in it to be found fit. Sometimes if you know this stuff you can keep things to yourself and just apply for retirement. It saves you from being stuck in a process where you don't control the timeline.
Click to expand...
Thank you for all the information. Now just like everything government run, I'm assuming you have some current guidance or regs that you can tell me to look up? And I don't know if it matters that my projected DoD rating will be over 50%. I'm not saying you are wrong at all, I'm saying I would like something concrete to show them that they are giving out false information.
Thanks for the TriCare knowledge.
 
Chiefs Fan said:
Thank you for all the information. Now just like everything government run, I'm assuming you have some current guidance or regs that you can tell me to look up? And I don't know if it matters that my projected DoD rating will be over 50%. I'm not saying you are wrong at all, I'm saying I would like something concrete to show them that they are giving out false information.
Thanks for the TriCare knowledge.
Click to expand...
I don't have the exact reg in hand but have read it many times. You can't double dip. You can't VA compensation and Chapter 61 compensation that overlaps and that is what is happening if you were get the higher chapter 61 rate and all of your VA compensation. Its actually pretty simple to understand that if you think of it in those terms.

One of the reasons they probably don't know that is that its super rare for a Reserve/Guardsman to be immediately eligible for their retirement and medically retire. You would get the higher of the 2 if you weren't eligible for any other retirement. However, even in that instance your chapter 61 retirement would be offset by any VA compensation received. The only way to recoup that offset is utilizing a different 20 year retirement or applying for and receiving CRSC. Also, one of the caps for CRSC is that you can't get more than the combination from all incomes equal to your earned longevity pension + VA compensation. My wife earned a 20 year reserve retirement but was medically retired in her late 30's. She joined the Reserves at age 17. Even with a 75% DOD her chapter 61 pension wasn't as high as her earned longevity pension as an AGR which she had 17AFS + her VA compensation amount. She was missing out on $1,500 a month. So she applied for CRSC and was awarded $1,500. According to CRSC tables her 80% should be been $2,365 but she hit that cap since that is what she was missing out on due to the VA offset to her chapter 61 retirement. She can't get more than that becuase if she did she would be getting paid twice on her compensated disabilities.

Hope that makes sense.
 
Provis said:
I did think of 1 or 2 things that are a slight benefit. If medically retired you get Tricare right away for free. If you choose Tricare select the $300 annual fee is waived. Typically if you qualify for an earlier Reserve retirement you get the pay right away but still have to wait until age 60 for the free Tricare.
Click to expand...
Reservists get the option of tricare retired reserve select in between retirement and age 60. The cost is $585 for just one or $1406 for a family... A month. We don't get regular retired select. The family rate can be more than the pension they get around 60.

Getting medical retirement gets you tricare select with the annual fee waived.
 
aviationeast said:
Reservists get the option of tricare retired reserve select in between retirement and age 60. The cost is $585 for just one or $1406 for a family... A month. We don't get regular retired select. The family rate can be more than the pension they get around 60.

Getting medical retirement gets you tricare select with the annual fee waived.
Click to expand...
He is eligible for his Reserve Retirement already so that may not be a factor.
 
Provis said:
I don't have the exact reg in hand but have read it many times. You can't double dip. You can't VA compensation and Chapter 61 compensation that overlaps and that is what is happening if you were get the higher chapter 61 rate and all of your VA compensation. Its actually pretty simple to understand that if you think of it in those terms.

One of the reasons they probably don't know that is that its super rare for a Reserve/Guardsman to be immediately eligible for their retirement and medically retire. You would get the higher of the 2 if you weren't eligible for any other retirement. However, even in that instance your chapter 61 retirement would be offset by any VA compensation received. The only way to recoup that offset is utilizing a different 20 year retirement or applying for and receiving CRSC. Also, one of the caps for CRSC is that you can't get more than the combination from all incomes equal to your earned longevity pension + VA compensation. My wife earned a 20 year reserve retirement but was medically retired in her late 30's. She joined the Reserves at age 17. Even with a 75% DOD her chapter 61 pension wasn't as high as her earned longevity pension as an AGR which she had 17AFS + her VA compensation amount. She was missing out on $1,500 a month. So she applied for CRSC and was awarded $1,500. According to CRSC tables her 80% should be been $2,365 but she hit that cap since that is what she was missing out on due to the VA offset to her chapter 61 retirement. She can't get more than that becuase if she did she would be getting paid twice on her compensated disabilities.

Hope that makes sense.
Click to expand...
Most of it did. I just made a call to DFAS and she explained it about 8 different ways. You are right, if you have your 20 and you have 50% or greater VA, you will get part B regular retirement one way or another. Thank you for the insight on this subject.
 
Chiefs Fan said:
Most of it did. I just made a call to DFAS and she explained it about 8 different ways. You are right, if you have your 20 and you have 50% or greater VA, you will get part B regular retirement one way or another. Thank you for the insight on this subject.
Click to expand...
You are welcome!

The basic rule to ensure you max out compensation is that you are eligible to immediately receive a 20 year retirement. It doesn't matter if that's a regular active duty retirement or Reserve/Guard retirement. (TERA is the one exception where you can have 15 year retirement) + 50% or greater total VA%. So if you have those 2 things you don't have to worry about the results of your MEB. For the most part being eligible for a chapter 61 retirement too doesn't change the numbers:)
 
Provis said:
He is eligible for his Reserve Retirement already so that may not be a factor.
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The pension can start early, but the medical doesn't change until 60. But 1-2 years at that rate or getting insurance from a civilian job is not too bad. Getting it for 15-20 years for younger reservists is.
 
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